Grante’s seventh volume of the complete
Godowsky might serve as an introduction
to those unfamiliar with Godowsky’s
idiom, including, as it does, six of his best-known transcriptions alongside some real
rarities. Examples of his most intricate
contrapuntal writing (the three
paraphrases on themes by Johann Strauss
II) share the disc with more literal
transcriptions (Karl Bohm’s Still wie die Nacht, Richard Strauss’s
Ständchen).

Some might think that Albéniz’s Triana
was complex enough without further
additions. Godowsky somehow manages
to elaborate its textures without
compromising its essential character,
though this is a more fruitful exercise
when applied to the same composer’s
celebrated Tango. This Grante plays with a
poetic refinement, as he does the exquisite
Bohm, Kreisler and Saint-Saëns
arrangements. What are sadly beyond him
are the three big Strauss Symphonic Metamorphoses, which sound laboured and
heavy-handed to a degree. David Saperton
in Fledermaus and Künstlerleben,
Cherkassky in Wein, Weib und Gesang, and
Marc-André Hamelin in all three offer
pianism of a completely different order.

Half the programme is played on a
Steinway, half on a Bösendorfer in a
different location. Music & Arts’
typography is wayward, as is its
proofreading; Richard Strauss is
uncredited; Grante, in his booklet, seems
to think that Godowsky wrote nothing
for Paul Wittgenstein: the paraphrase on
themes from The Gypsy Baron for left hand
alone was written for him. But M&A
does, for once, and quite rightly, credit
Godowsky as the unhyphenated composer
of the Johann Strauss paraphrases.